'It was all a tragic accident': Oscar Pistorius trial begins with protest of innocence

It was always going to be an explosive start, but with those words the first witness in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial transported a fascinated international audience back to the night Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead by her boyfriend on Valentine's Day last year.

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Pistorius pleads not guilty to murder

The trial of Oscar Pistorius begins in Pretoria, South Africa with the Olympic and Paralympic track star pleading not guilty to murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Watched on by a packed court room, and millions of live viewers around the world, the state's first witness, Dr Michelle Burger, told the court how she woke up at about 3am in the early hours of February 14, 2013 to the sound of "a woman's terrible screams".

"I sat upright in bed and my husband also woke up from the screams," she said.

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In a sign of the ferocious cross-examination that is to come to most of the witness, Pistorius' barrister Barry Roux SC grilled the professor about her testimony, repeatedly questioning the order of events and querying differences made between her police statement, made in Afrikaans, and her oral testimony.

Mr Roux repeatedly suggested she was mistaken in what she heard, suggesting she had in fact heard the sound of Pistorius hitting the toilet door with a cricket bat after the shooting, rather than the actual shots.

Pressing her further, Mr Roux asked if in fact the shots could have been fired before she woke up. But in regard to both assertions, Dr Burger was not going to be swayed, firmly stating she had heard gunshots in the order stated.

Towards the end of her testimony on Monday, Mr Roux accused her of "redacting ... speculating ... you're trying to close all the gaps."

But Dr Burger would not be deterred: "My lady, I've heard gunshots before. I think most South Africans know when they hear gunshots."

Bizzarely, Mr Roux also suggested it was part of the defence case that when Mr Pistorius was anxious, he screamed like a woman. He suggested to Dr Burger that in fact she may have heard his client screaming.

However, she was adamant she heard a woman screaming, and then a male yelling for help.

The first day of the trial began more than 90 minutes behind schedule, after a problem with an interpreter delayed the commencement of the evidence.

Once underway, Judge Thokozile Masipa asked Pistorius if he understood the charges against him.

He said he did, and in response to the charge of premeditated murder, Pistorius said firmly he was "not guilty, my lady."

Breaking from tradition, Mr Roux then read a statement in response by his client, who said he denied the allegations "in the strongest terms".

He said he approached the bathroom with a gun knowing he was on his stumps so could not adequately defend them both.

At the time he pulled the trigger four times, firing shots into the bathroom door, he said: "I believed Reeva was still in bed."

Pistorius went on to accuse the prosecution of using "unsubstantiated allegations" and "inadmissible evidence" for the "assassination of my character".

He said claims that he murdered Steenkamp "could not be further from the truth".

"We were in a loving relationship," he said.

"Whilst I admit that I inflicted the fatal gunshots on Reeva, this occurrence was indeed a tragic accident as I mistakenly believed that an intruder or intruders had entered my home and posed an imminent threat to Reeva and me," he said.

He revealed he intends to give evidence in his own defence, where a more fulsome account would be provided of the night in question.

Shortly after the statement, prosecutor Gerrie Nel gave a brief opening of the case, saying: "They were the only two people in the house. There were no eyewitnesses. The state's case is based on circumstantial evidence."

In another bizarre twist, an interpreter who struggled with the assigned task of translating Afrikaans to English was sent from the court, with Dr Burger content to give her evidence.

Pistorius appeared composed as he sat in the dock on Monday, listening intently to the evidence and writing on an A4 notepad.

He has also pleaded not guilty to a string of additional firearms charges.

Ms Steenkamp's mother, June, was dressed solemnly in black and surrounded by friends as she arrived at court on Monday morning.

Neither she, nor members of Team Pistorius, made any comment to the media.

Pistorius was mobbed by a huge throng of media and members of the public as he left the court, causing a huge crush on Madiba Street in central Pretoria.